Internationalisation Difficulties (was Re: Largest pixmap? )

[Steve Hosgood <iisteve weeble i2it co uk>]

David Topper wrote:
> I have a little app. that I'm going to call "pfield slider."  As a pun,
> I'd like to have a nice image of a baseball player sliding into home
> plate.  I've got the image....
>

Hmm. The failure of visual puns outside their native countries/cultures has
dogged the designers of toolbar icons since they were first introduced.

It may be that your app. is intended for the North American market, or
possibly is a baseball scoresheet manager or something, in which case I
apologise in advance and suggest you ignore the rest of this posting.

But if not, may I suggest that cunning puns involving baseball players are going
to fall flat in vast areas of the world where baseball is hardly known? In Britain
for instance, our Channel 4's attempt to run a baseball programme on TV about 6 years
ago fell embarrassingly flat (only 3 viewers :-)) and I don't think it's been tried
since. (Their American Football programme on the other hand did pretty well).

OK, so despite being a Brit, I do (partly) know what a home plate is, and that
home runs are kinda important :-) But stop the average Brit on the streets and
ask them, and I bet you'll come up with a lot of blank faces. Likewise in quite
a large area of the world.

Now, how about my really cool app. for handling security cameras. Called "Night
Watchman" its icon is a cricket player....... Blank faces all around the U.S.A, I
expect!

--

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